The Harbor Princess shook violently, I could hear equipment falling in the lab as we fell towards the planet. It had been an hour since we lost power and started to get sucked in by the gravitational field.
A few lights came on and the screens flickered.
"-Power is nearly restored master. Just another ten minutes!-"
That was probably a few minutes too late, we were entering the upper atmosphere. The zero gravity we had been plagued with for the last hour wasn't an issue.
I could feel the pressure slam into me and pushed me into Hextias' breast, we didn't need to breathe so there was no possible way to pass out but it was very uncomfortable.
"-Powers restored master!-"
I heard the engines roar back to life and felt the ship trying to compensate for the momentum. We were still falling rapidly towards one of the major population centers, the engines stalled twice before the first one came online.
The first engine roared to life and sent us into a spin a moment later the second engine came to life and straightened the ship out. I shook away the dizzying feeling and cursed our rotten luck.
"Oh fuck!" was all I managed to say as we crashed through a forest of trees towards the mountainside. We came to a bone jarring halt as we crashed into the mountain.
The next thing I knew I was on the ground, the control room was dimly lit with sparks popping out here and there. Hextia was crouched over me, checking to make sure I was uninjured, I crawled up into her embrace and reassured her I was fine.
The lights came back on but the monitors showing our surroundings were black, the scanners showed that it was just an absence of light and not a malfunction. We turned on exterior lights, the screens showed we were in a large cavern.
Well, at least we survived.
I ran a diagnostic report of the harbor princess, we were mostly intact with only minimal damage to the engines and minor hull damage. The air was breathable, though it wouldn't have mattered unless the air contained acidic properties, Hextia sent her splinters to scout the surroundings.
While they were out we cleaned the lab up as best we could, Indra was alright since we had placed her in a medical pod but our pirate friends hadn't been so lucky.
We disposed of their bodies and I got to work on repairing my equipment, luckily nothing was too damaged and anything that had to be thrown away wasn't of much importance.
I watched the recording of the red light that had knocked us out of the sky, at first nothing seemed all that different but when I went frame by frame I made out tiny red triangles appearing out of nowhere, and then the wave hit us.
I filed the incident away and closed the image. Whatever it had been only brought us down when we locked onto it, it didn't perceive us as a threat otherwise it would have blown us to pieces before we came close enough to sense it.
"Hextia, is there any news about how we get out of here?"
She placed me on her shoulder and made her way to exit the ship while explaining, "-We are currently buried under rubble so getting the ship out will take time but my splinter has found the entrance we made, so we can leave, there is a city at the base of the mountain master. Would you like to investigate it master?-"
I nodded and Hextia left the ship and began jogging through the dark tunnel, ten minutes passed at her steady pace before I saw the tunnel begin to lighten up, her splinter fell in beside her as we moved through the large cave entrance.
My eyes were greeted by a mountainside covered in trees. The leaves were a mix of red and purple while the trunks were a dusky orange color, it was beautiful and foreign.
The scent of the forest washed over me and smelled like most forests would, it was similar to the green forests back home but there was a warmth to it that the ones I was familiar with didn't have.
Hextia walked into the strange looking woods, there was smoke coming from the base of the mountain from what I assumed was the nearby town, we moved at a slow jog. I looked about the forest as we made our way down the mountain, strange animals littered the forest, tiny boars with quills were quite abundant and ran between the trees.
They would shoot the quills at fruits or small game, they were smart yet cowardly little creatures. Anytime we came near them they would squeal all cute like and bail into the woods, Hextia was using her splinters to chase a few but with little success at capturing the small pigs.
There were tiny flying lizards and a few more creatures that were amusing, the most ingenious creatures were a very strange mixture between a squirrel and a lizard. Most of the tiny thing was covered in a very soft looking fur, except for its legs that had a lizard's scales covering them, the small creatures would jump from a branch it would disappear and reappear many yards away.
These tiny creatures could teleport, a skill only high level beings had was mastered by a rodent, how miraculous. I saw a complicated look on Hextias' face, I knew she wanted to pet one of them as well and was trying to come up with a plan to subdue the cute little creature which made me chuckle.
An hour's time passed and we were about halfway through our journey a large purple deer ran past our trail followed by a pack of red and white furred wolves. The deer was about the size of a carriage and nearly 12 feet tall, while the wolves were the size of horses.
We watched one of the wolves try to get in front of the deer and was trampled to death, I hadn't noticed the razor sharp looking horns on the deer's legs, they weren't too large but they cut through that wolf like a hot knife through butter.
We followed the battling beasts, trees were felled and small creatures ran away in fear, we lost sight of the group of beasts, and when we caught up with them. The wolves had only a few members left while the deer was now covered in wounds.
The remaining wolves circled the deer while Hextia moved her splinters around the edges of the fight and prepared to fight. We needed a way to gain currency in the town and information as well, the first thing that was easily tradable was beast hides and meat.
Hextia became impatient and ordered her splinter to charge into the fray, I watched as she waged a war on the beasts and I realized that she was amazing at close combat but she either needed to train in ranged combat or I needed to make her a sister.
I smiled at the idea for a moment before I heard a snapping sound, the blades the splinters swung had snapped after a few swings had connected with the beasts.
'Well, shit.' The splinters ran back into the fray and had to use their fists and unnatural strength to do any damage to the wolves, by the time they had defeated the beasts their armor was cracked and bent and one of the splinters had to be pulled off of the deers' antlers.
It was quite comical actually as I had watched Hextia pout as the other splinters worked together to pull her free.
Now we needed money, information, new weapons, and armor.
We placed the corpses into my spacial pouch for now and resumed our journey. An hour later we were finally made it through, the forest thinned by a fraction but not by much.
We came upon a wall of vines and trees covered in thorns, we made our way around until we found a large open archway, there were a few guards at the archway. Demi humans, bunny folk to be specific, the interesting thing was they were female. They had black leather armor with curved daggers at the waist.
We backed away and pulled the corpses of the beasts out of my pouch, the splinters hoisted them onto their backs. We marched towards the gates, a small line had formed while we were getting ready and we made our way to the end of the line.
So far everyone we had seen was demi human or beast folk, there were no humans or elves, devils, or any other type of sentient being. We listened to the surrounding conversations and it was a language similar to the common tongue found on most planets though this one felt simpler, like it wasn't convoluted over a millennium of change and controversy.
There didn't seem to be a toll to enter the gateway just a quick check by the guards and you could enter, I was sitting on Hextias' shoulder and using her long platinum hair to keep myself from falling.
We were receiving some odd stairs here and there but otherwise, we were left alone.
Our turn to get checked came quickly and one of the guards came up to us, her body stiffened and her hand was on the pommel of her dagger, "How dare you come here human!"
The other guard blew a whistle and joined her partner, they both unsheathed their daggers and prepared to attack.
So this was an anti human establishment, not all that surprising as humanity tended to be a little over the top when it came to other races. Hextia raised her hands to show she wasn't resisting, her splinters dropped the beast carcasses and removed their helmets which showed they were identical.
I stood up and acknowledged the guard that called Hextia human, ���Hold on there, she isn't human, they just look human. No human can bear 16 identical children, if you need more proof you can stab one of them. They feel no pain and don't bleed, last time I checked humans bleed."
I motioned for the bunny girl to approach one of the splinters. They looked at me and spoke with each other before coming to a decision.
"We will wait for more guards to come before we test them." her voice was high pitched and adorable but her tone was firm.
"Of course, whatever you need." I readily agreed, while we waited for more guards I thought of a backstory for us. We didn't have to wait long before a large beast woman, a bear by the look of her, led a group of bunnies, cats, and bird folk luckily there was a mix of men and women in the group otherwise I would have been concerned for being male.
Well, I used to be.
The she bear spoke with the guards first while the rest of the troop made a semicircle around us, after receiving the initial report the bear walked over to Hextia.
The she bear sniffed at us before standing back and addressing us in a gruff voice, "Well you don't smell like humans." she reached out her paw and waited for Hextia to present her hand.
With a slight scratch on the back of her hand, you could see the metal skeleton beneath the outer coating of slime flesh. The she bear sniffed Hextias' hand just to be sure before she nodded at me, "You spoke the truth outsider, but that bears the question as to what you are?"
She had placed a heavier emphasis on the word bare, wait did she just make a bear joke?
I stood and introduced us, "We are the Araksyn, we were born of metal, all we did was dress up a bit so as not to frighten others. Though in this case, it would seem to have backfired."
While the she bear listened the moment I had spoken aloud I felt something click deep within me. 'Crap. Did I just name our race on a whim?'
The she bear nodded and waved a young lizard boy forward, "This is Foram, an apprentice to the guards, he will guide you in the city and be a witness for your identities, I would advise you not to appear human, most cities have banned them. Other than that you are all clear to enter the city, Welcome to Korinth."